Portable disc drive devices share a common problem: they are often dropped, bumped, or shaken. If the shock from such an occurrence is severe enough, the occurrence may be referred to as a “large shock event”. If the drive is operating during a large shock event, the resulting impact can cause the disc recording head to impact the storage medium surface, erasing data and potentially damaging the recording head. Such impact can also dislodge particles from the media surface.
In addition, many modern hard disc drives have ramp assemblies at the outer diameter of the storage medium disc. Ramp assemblies are used to prevent the actuator assembly and specifically the recording head it supports from contacting the media surface when the recording head is in a parked or non-operating position. During shock events, the ramp assembly itself can impact the media surface near the outer diameter and generate particles.
Particles generated from such shock events can deposit on the recording head, resulting in excessive fly height and poor write performance. Conventional error handling methods with Read After Write (RAW) verification attempt multiple retries in order to successfully complete the write operation. However, particles that have become deposited on the recording head may require an extended period of time to dissipate, resulting in the write operation exceeding system timeout limits.